England triumph by two runs in Delhi thriller It may be the City of Djinns for William Dalrymple, but Delhi posed no supernatural problems for the Indian team, only very real ones courtesy the Englishmen on tour. Looking to wrap up the series decisively, India could only watch as first Nick Knight (105) and then Andrew Flintoff (52) tonked the bowlers around to notch up 271 after England were put in to bat. But fireworks from Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag, and then a grand stand of 111 between Mohammad Kaif (46) and Sourav Ganguly (74), must have warmed the cockles of the hearts of Delhi-ites gathered at the Kotla on a chilly day. But Ashley Giles, coming back after a first-spell thrashing, picked five quick wickets, and not even Ajit Agarkar’s late heroics could see India through to a win. England, in the end, won by two runs, an admirable performance and one that gives them a chance of squaring the series in Mumbai on Sunday.

Hussain enthuses about Giles' character Relief must have been foremost in Nasser Hussain’s mind after England scraped through a do-or-die encounter at Delhi. It is understandable, then, that he had many words of praise for his strike weapon on the day – left-arm spinner Ashley Giles. "Ashley bowled a great spell," Hussain said after England's win that gave them a chance of squaring the series at Mumbai on Sunday. "It was a display of great character to come back the way he did." Hussain said that Giles's re-introduction late in the innings had been planned. "Ganguly was playing well, and we were thinking he could go and hole out going after Giles. If he had hit him for a few sixes, the game could have got out of our hands. But he got out and we came back into the match." Hussain also re-iterated his theory of posting a large total and then applying pressure. "Getting runs on the board is the key in any one-day game. You always have a chance until the other side has got the runs," he said. "Posting 270 runs on that wicket was a good score. We knew if we put India under pressure they might crack and let us through." Giles, predictably, was cock-a-hoop after his super performance, but he did not forget to give credit where it was due. "A message came out from the coach to try and tuck up the left-handers around the wicket, and it was a great ploy because it worked," said Giles. "I tried to fire it in a bit quicker and try and rush them a bit." His thoughts, however, must have been with his wife, due to give birth at any moment, and Giles' Man of the Match award will merely be icing on the cake once his second child is born.

A figment of English imagination? About 10 minutes of play were lost at the Ferozeshah Kotla after English players - Michael Vaughan and Andrew Flintoff - complained of being targeted by spectators using pellet guns. A day later, though, the visitors have brushed the incident aside. "It wasn't as if the missiles hurt the players or anything like that, it was more of a distraction while they were fielding by the boundary," their tour manager Phil Neale said, confirming that his team were not going to lodge an official complaint. A statement that the Delhi and Districts Cricket Association representative Maninder Singh Jaggi made was revealing in the context. "I think the England cricketers' imagination have run wild on this occasion," he said. "It was discovered to be a small piece of cardboard from a blow-horn that might have been blown into the ground by the wind."

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